We Wish You A Crazy Christmas
by violet-phoenix-rose
Summary: Peace on Earth? Not a chance. It's Christmas the year after the war ended, and if it can happen, it will.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

A/N: Random Christmas stuff. Please review! This chapter is short, but it'll get longer as I come up with a plot (hopefully soon, but of course I don't know what I'm doing yet).

---

'Twas the week before Christmas, and all through the house... No, wrong story, although it was definitely the week before Christmas. The Burrow was full of people, and there was barely room to breathe. Crazy? You could say so, but completely chaotic would be a better description.

"Six days and counting," Ginny said, taking a glance at her calendar, which was partially obscured by Luna's idea of holiday decor - a strand of electric tree lights intertwined with a long length of stringed cranberries. Since Luna had basically become part of the family, six months beforehand, Ginny had almost gotten used to odd things like that.

"Perfect," Luna said, perched on a camp bed in the far corner of Ginny's room. "I think we ought to go through with your plan, even though your mum told us we shouldn't. At the very least, we'll have fun."

Ginny's plan, though it sounded devious if simply referred to that way, was really quite harmless. All she wanted to do was get the rest of the family and almost-family to go Christmas caroling, but Molly had put her foot down at the idea of everyone loose in the gated community nearby. The girls, however, thought it was brilliant.

"Yeah, and at the very least, Mum's going to kill me. You'll be fine, of course - you didn't come up with it, and for some odd reason she likes you - but I won't be. But still... It would be a lot of fun. Let's bounce it off the others when they turn up. Maybe Christmas Eve would be a good night to do it - most people are either at a party or having one, so we wouldn't deal with too many people."

"Then we're on, I guess," Luna said as she rose from the bed. "All we've got to do is come up with some Santa hats for everyone and we're set for it."

"You actually want us to wear those things? They're the same color as my hair, and since when did you like doing normal stuff?"

"It's not normal, not what I've got in mind. I'll tweak them a bit, make them original."

"That's going to be interesting."

"It will be."


	2. Chapter 2

In another part of the house, later that afternoon, a decorating war had begun. As was standard that Christmas, it sounded like a disaster but was really quite funny. The boys - all of them - were playing the let's-put-all-this-up-as-fast-as-we-can game, but it had gotten out-of-hand.

Okay, out-of-hand might be an understatement. The others were doing fine, but George had ideas to rival Luna's when it came to what one does with a strand of magical Christmas lights. Instead of putting them on the tree, which was lopsided to begin with, he put them in every place one doesn't expect to find them. By accident, this had turned the great room into an obstacle course.

"Hey, hand me those," George said as Ron pulled yet another strand of lights out of one of the twenty-odd boxes of decorations. Luckily for everyone else, the boxes had all been retrieved from the attic before the actual decorating began.

---

Luna walked halfway down the stairs and started laughing. Though it was unlike her, she found the display in the great room rather comical. At that moment, Percy had just tripped on a strand of lights and crashed into one of the few family heirlooms, a porcelain vase that shattered everywhere in a way that couldn't be fixed.

She was the only one laughing, she realized, as Ginny crept up behind her. "What's so funny?" Ginny asked, not sure what was going on.

"You can see it as well as I can," Luna replied, "if not better. I have a feeling this is just the start of it, though - if this place stays in one piece during the holidays, I'll be surprised."

"I still don't get why this is funny," Ginny muttered. "It's just like something..."

"Someone who died would have done," Luna finished, knowing that was where Ginny had been heading before she had started crying.

"Yeah. It's just this is a little different from the sort of thing she did, which is probably good for everyone else, cause I'm the only one who gets it from what I can tell."

Indeed, Ginny seemed to be the only one who didn't find the display amusing. From their vantage point halfway down the stairs, the girls watched the scene unfold. Percy had dissapeared, his extreme sense of self-preservation at work once more, and Charlie had apparently gone after him. George, meanwhile, was getting quite the telling-off from Bill, who'd warned him this sort of thing was going to happen. Ron and Harry stood in the background, watching and having no idea what they were supposed to do.

"Alright," Luna said, breaking the silence, "how about we go and work on the hats. We'll have to get someone to help us with a certain part, but we won't be there for awhile. What's wrong?" she had noticed that Ginny had curled into a little ball.

"This is going to be a weird Christmas, and a sad one too. Everyone's missing someone - we lost Fred, you lost your dad, there are a lot of people we knew that aren't here... It'll be too much for some people."

"Like who?"

"Mum and George, definently, and probably me. I'm just surprised you're not sad."

"Did you ever think I was the sort who'd sit in a little ball and spend an obscene amount of time crying? That isn't me. I'm trying to make everyone else happy, since you're not, and that's my way of remembering."

"Only you, Luna," Ginny muttered, almost laughing at her friend.

"So I'm a little crazy - right now I think that'll save us."

"Which means WHAT, exactly?"

"I'll liven things up. I think I'd be good at that."

"Okay, so where are the hats?"

"In my suitcase - the blue one that all my random junk is in."

---

A/N: I have a plot now - sort-of. Reviews are appreciated.


	3. Chapter 3

Hermione Granger arrived at the Burrow that evening and, were it not for the usual clutter and chickens outdoors, would have checked to make certain she was in the right place. The house was in a state of total anarchy, there was barely space to walk, and she smelled something that was clearly on fire. For the first time ever, she was happy that Luna Lovegood was the first person she saw.

"Hullo," Luna said, lifting her wand and sending Hermione's suitcase flying through the air.

"Would you mind telling me what's going on here?" Hermione asked, rather bemused. George was still trying to wrangle a strand of Christmas lights, attempting to keep them off the floor and failing miserably.

"The boys are trying to decorate, Fleur can't cook, and hot glue guns are useless," Ginny said, slipping up behind Luna.

"I get the first two," Hermione said, "but what's this about hot glue guns? You two don't need them anymore, remember?"

"Yeah," Ginny said, "but we thought it'd be fun - so much for that, huh, Luna? We set one of the Santa hats on fire and nearly did in another before we gave up."

"Santa hats? What am I not catching?"

"Let me take over, Ginny," Luna chirped. "Ginny decided we're going caroling the night before Christmas, and we were trying to modify some Santa hats, make them a little more original. Mistletoe burns something awful, and it smells odd too.

"And about the chaos down here - George thought it'd be cool to turn this room into a maze. I liked the idea, but it didn't go so well once Percy went flying. Bill yapped at him for awhile, Percy went into hiding, the Christmas tree nearly exploded..."

"Nearly exploded? What the hell is George trying to test?"

"Nothing, which is the scary part. His stash of fireworks for New Years' Eve got confused with his present for Ron and ended up under the tree, and then someone meant to light a candle and accidently lit the parcel. We could hear them all the way upstairs."

"What am I not getting? What's with the catastrophe around here?"

"Ask my brothers," Ginny said darkly. "And ask Fleur, who thought making an Eiffel Tower out of cranberries was a good idea. That's what's on the kitchen ceiling, in case you're wondering. And by the way, you're with us, which means you have about six inches of space and there's no place to walk in the bedroom."

"Thanks for the heads-up," Hermione said as she left the girls' company and went upstairs to attempt unpacking.

---

Twenty minutes later, Luna was in the kitchen and wondering why anyone was bothering with letting Fleur cook. Luna had nothing against her, but anyone who thinks that meat should be mostly pink is either crazy or very continental-European. So far as Luna could tell, Fleur was both.

"Could you 'and me zat?" Fleur asked, pointing to a large pan and disturbing Luna from her daydreaming.

"Knock yourself out," Luna said, meaning it as she handed over the pan. "What exactly is in this?"

"Shrimp," Fleur replied, as though that explained everything.

"Um, they aren't supposed to be hot pink, are they?" Luna asked, taking a glance. She was in the kitchen to observe and to avoid the crash-bashing in the rest of the house, but neither of those seemed like good reasons at the moment.

"What color do you think zey should be?"

"White," Luna said, leaving before things could get worse. She had nothing against anyone, and yet she was so peeved at everyone in sight. It was unlike her in a way that, quite honestly, utterly terrified her.

---

Several hours later, Luna was perched on her cot, trying to make sense of her bizarre behavior until she decided that her actions were nothing compared to those of some of the others. She was out of sorts, but some of them were downright crazy.

She wasn't sure how anyone was going to stay sane during the next two weeks. It was only day one of fifteen, and there had already been a broken item, a telling-off, and a near-miss with the tree. More than anything else, she wondered how much worse it could get.

---

A/N: Day One is officially finished! It only gets crazier from here - you have been warned. At least I think I have everyone accounted for...


	4. Chapter 4

"Five days until Christmas," Ginny sang, waking up her roommates a few minutes before 9 AM.

"Shut up, Ginny," Hermione moaned, covering her head with her pillow.

"Yeah, Hermione's right," Luna said, irritated for a less-than-obvious reason. "We're not little kids anymore, so you can nix the fake enthusiasm."

"What if it's not fake?" Ginny asked curiously.

"Then I think you could at least hold off a little," Luna suggested. "We'd take it better if we were awake, I think."

"Darn," Ginny muttered. "No one's really into the holiday this year."

"We're into it," Hermione said, having given up on going back to sleep. "We just don't like overly festive people at this time of the morning. It's the holidays - at least let us enjoy SOME of the perks."

"I don't see how you can do this," Luna said calmly. "Just yesterday afternoon you were moaning about how odd it'll be without certain people around, and now you're every sort of cheery. If you start singing carols, there may have to be an intervention."

"What's wrong with that?" Ginny asked, still clueless.

"You're just not making any sense, that's all," Luna explained, hoping Ginny would listen. No one was that lucky.

"Look who's talking!" Ginny snapped as she dashed out of the room, slamming the door behind her with a satisfying clash.

"And we're supposed to survive this holiday?" Hermione muttered once she was sure Ginny was out of earshot.

"It'll be fun," Luna chirped. "At the very least, I might learn why it's a good thing I have no siblings."

"Yeah - me too. I'm used to this circus, but I'm not even going to try and understand what some of them think they're doing. Ginny kinda worries me, though - she's never like this, and I have a feeling there's something she's not telling people."

"Like what?"

"I have no idea, but if there's anything remotely unusual that's happened to her in the past six months - anything at all - we'll probably find out at the worst moment possible."

"That bad?"

"Do I look like I know, Luna? It'd have to be something rather important, but beyond that I'm as clueless as you are."


	5. Chapter 5

Several hours later, George was putting the finishing touches on a project that would not soon be forgotten. He had heard of someone in America who had synchonized their outdoor lights to music, and it had sounded like a brilliant idea. Unlike the original person, however, the music George had found was a loud rendition of 'Angels We Have Heard On High'. If all else failed, people would find it entertaining.

"What's going on?" George turned his head and saw that the speaker was Luna, who had a large bag in one hand and her wand in the other.

"Christmas lights - I'm syncing them to music; should work perfectly. Hey, what the hell are you DOING?" George had been perfectly fine until he saw that the bag Luna carried was his stash of mistletoe, which she was now setting on fire. "That wasn't cheap!"

"I'm just making sure we don't have any more problems with Nargles," Luna chirped, faking innocence. "They've already attacked Ginny; who knows who their next victim will be. I know it's them, of course - why else would she be acting so strangely?"

"So they live in mistletoe?" George was pretending to care, too shocked by what had just been said about his sister to do much else. He wasn't sure what to make of the oddest person he'd ever met calling someone strange, but it wasn't like he cared what that girl did.

"Yes. I think a few of them got Ginny while we were trying to attach their home to a hat last night, but I'm not sure."

"So what exactly has my sister DONE?"

"Nothing yet, but Hermione and I are starting to get worried."

"Which means what?"

"It means she's not being herself. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go torch the other three bags of mistletoe."

"Damn," George muttered once Luna was gone. "My sister's out-of-sorts, her crazy best friend is sending my mistletoe up in smoke... This is a nightmare."

---

And the nightmare continued, once George started using the music. The lights were in place, and he was pretty sure he knew what he was doing. He flipped a switch, and everyone within a quarter-mile could hear it.

"What's going on?" Molly Weasley asked, charging out of the front door. This was the last thing she had wanted to deal with, and of course it had happened. For once, it was GOOD that the nearest house was rather far away.

"Yeah, do I even wanna know where you found that racket?" Ginny snapped, close behind her mother. It wasn't so much the fact that the house could probably be seen from space that was getting on her nerves; more the fact that the music could be heard in every inch of the house.

"It's art," George said, trying to defend himself against the two people who wouldn't listen to him.

"Says who?" Ginny didn't see anything artistic about what was going on. Instead, all she saw was a migraine-inducing amount of lights and someone who was about to get quite a chewing-out. "The light maze was bad enough, but this? All I can say is that this catastrophe had better be gone by Christmas Eve, or I'm taking it down."

"You're welcome to do that."

"Does ANYONE take me seriously?" Ginny asked, storming indoors. Funny how having survived had completely screwed with people's minds...


	6. Chapter 6

If anything, George's projects only got worse that Christmas. It was his own weird way of remembering Fred, who probably would've come up with original things instead of stealing ideas from Muggle christmas movies like he was doing. So long as the general rule of no-one-gets-hurt was kept, anything and everything was possible.

It was now three days until Christmas, and as it so happened, next up on the list was the proper destruction of the tree. George knew he was going to get killed if it worked, but it probably wouldn't so there was almost nothing to worry about. All he had to do was locate the second stash of fireworks - which someone had 'borrowed'. Bad enough the mistletoe was up in smoke, and now this! He practically flew down the stairs, deciding it might be a good idea to ask people what had happened.

"What's wrong with you?" Hermione asked, rather bemused by George's state of panic.

"What's wrong?" he replied. "Have you seen a box marked 'materials' anywhere?" He knew quite well that if it had passed her, she'd have seen it.

"What's in it?" Hermione asked, starting to worry. If it had gone missing, there was probably a good reason - one she hoped she wouldn't find out.

"Fireworks." He was almost breathless. "For taking out the tree. Long story, but I need to find them NOW."

"I think Harry and Ron went out the door with that box about an hour ago," she finally said. "Good luck finding them."

---

As it turned out, the fireworks no longer existed. When George finally found Harry and Ron (which took a lot longer than he'd thought), they no longer had the box. "What'd you do with them?" he asked, still breathless.

"With what?" Ron asked, confused as usual.

"My fireworks, that's what," George replied. "Hermione said you had them, and you better tell me who has them now."

"Would you freak out if we told you they didn't exist?" Ron asked, trying to keep it hypothetical.

"Define 'not existing'." George was actually rather shocked - though he should have known better than to underestimate those two, he didn't think they'd do something like that.

"We set them off," Harry said, stepping in front of Ron in the nick of time. Ron, meanwhile, was turning about the same color as his hair.

"Don't you know I was going to use those?" George was truly furious. Molly would have been proud if she'd seen this, so long as she had no idea what the fireworks were going to be used for.

"If we'd known," Harry said calmly, "we wouldn't have touched them."

"Let's hope you mean that," George said as he sulked back to the Burrow. Was ANYONE capable of normal behavior?

---

A/N: I'm officially combining this with the Lonely This Christmas challenge - just thought you might wanna know that. Also, if you review, tell me whether or not I should do a parody of SantaCon at some point - I'm considering it, but let me know if you think it'd work.


	7. Chapter 7

"Two days and counting!" Ginny's standard wake-up call had only grown more enthustiastic, a fact that disturbed Luna and Hermione..

"We know how many days until Christmas," Hermione said, not bothering to cover her head, "and if I hear that countdown again from you, someone's liable to get hurt. Got it?"

"Does ANYONE feel like celebrating?" Ginny muttered, leaving the room.

"Good grief," Luna said, emerging from under a heap of blankets a moment after hearing the door slam. "Just let me know if anything weird happens, Hermione - I'm not used to half of these people so I have no idea what's going on."

"It's weird, all right," Hermione said. "Ginny's having a nervous breakdown for no apparent reason, Fred's gone so George is making up for that in all the wrong ways, everyone else has adopted a state of total anarchy... It's a nightmare."

"Look, it's not like it could get worse," Luna chirped.

"It will, which is the problem. Ginny's disasterous excuse for a caroling excursion has been moved to tonight, which means this place might possibly explode with all the people I've heard she invited. Plus that, George still hasn't blown up the bloody Christmas tree, which I'm pretty sure is one of his goals, and knowing him it might well take out half the house in the process. Someone had better stop some of these morons..."

"They're not morons, just lonely people trying to find hope. That's what Christmas is, really - a celebration of hope and life and peace and joy and all those other good things."

"I hope you're right, Luna - if this circus gets any worse, Ginny won't be the only one having a breakdown."

"Like I said, it can't get any worse."

"Since when were you ever right about PEOPLE? From what I can tell, you spend half your time avoiding them, so why would you know stuff like this?"

"I don't avoid them, I watch them. There's a difference."

"If you say so."

---

A/N: Due to life-being-a-disaster, I probably won't be on from Dec. 15 until the beginning of January, when I promise I'll finish/post the rest of this. Sorry if it's bad timing, but one can't control family tragedy.


	8. Chapter 8

By the time evening came and Ginny's 'party' began, Luna almost wanted George to take out the tree and possibly his sister along with it. She was acting so bloody odd lately, and without a single possible reason for her behavior. If only, if only... Luna stopped herself, remembering that none of George's projects had ever gone according to plan, and this one was liable to wipe the Burrow and everyone within a mile clear off the face of the Earth.

A swarm of people filled the house. Luna caught a few glimpses before trying to get to the kitchen, where someone had hot-wired a chocolate fountain and come up with a package of those delightful pretzel thingies. As luck would have it, though, she didn't make it that far.

"Hey." At first, she had no idea she was being talked to, but a certain instinct told her to turn her head. "What are you doing here?"

"A, it's a party, and b, I basically live here now," Luna said before noticing who she was talking to. It was Neville, his face that weird color that is scarlet and ivory at the same time, and he was, for the first time, looking at her in a way that didn't imply that she had just said the worst possible thing.

"I was more interested in why you were trying to get through all the people, but that's cool too. What do you think of the decorations?" he was trying to change the subject, make it less awkward, but it didn't seem to work.

"Nothing's exploded yet and the lights aren't excessive," she mumbled, "so I guess it's okay. George seems to have taking out the tree at the top of his to-do list, so I'd steer clear of it if I were you, but right now I almost want him to do it and take Ginny out along with it."

"What'd she do?" It was clear, in that way without words, that he knew Luna was frusterated with Ginny's apparent lack of sanity or at least something along those lines.

"Nothing, which is the odd part. She's just out-of-sorts, that's all - crying for no apparent reason, going from ecstatic to depressed in the space of about a second, that sort of thing. I still can't tell what's responsible - it seemed like Nargles at first, but then she threw together this disaster..." Her voice trailed off, and her jaw dropped. All around her, everyone else seemed to have reacted similarly. What had happened, you ask? The Christmas tree no longer existed; it had been replaced by a blazing pyre that filled the room with smoke.

"That settles it," Hermione said, slipping behind Luna. "When I get my hands on George, and that's a when not an if, I'm gonna kill him."

"You really think it's that bad?" Luna asked. She herself was mildly amused, but it seemed she was the only one.

"Yeah, it is that bad," Ginny said, joining the group. By now, the four of them were the closest anyone was to the tree. "Just think of what Fred would be doing if he was here - if this had actually happened then, I mean. I can just picture what he'd probably be trying to sing." She herself started to sing what started like an off-key version of 'O Christmas Tree'. "The Christmas tree is on fire and the presents are burning. The Christmas tree is on fire and the presents are burning. The ornaments go up in smoke; the light display, it did explode. The Christmas tree is on fire and the presents are burning."

Eventually, a few people put out the flaming tree - Luna didn't see who it was, though, since she was hiding behind Ginny for no apparent reason. If people hadn't been preoccupied with the fire, someone would have found this funny, as Luna was a good four inches taller than Ginny. As it was, though, no one saw or even cared. The only person being watched was George - well, really it was his absence that was watched, as he himself was nowhere to be seen.

"For once he's actually showing he HAS a brain," Ginny muttered, noticing the awkward silence. "Problem is, I know exactly where he's gone off to, and I've got half a mind to give him a taste of this."

Ginny led a group of people out the front door, while the others stood in silence. "Totally crazy," Hermione whispered to Luna. "I hope it doesn't run in the family."

"No," said a tall girl whose name escaped everyone. "That would be the Blacks, and as far as I'm concerned, it's just as well that nearly all of them are dead now."

"That still doesn't explain Ginny," Luna said, making sure everyone heard her. "I'm not sure how well all of you know her, but she's been my best friend for a few years, and this isn't like her at all. She's usually a sweet, caring, kind person, and this is nowhere near that. Something's seriously wrong with her."

---

A/N: I haven't worked out why Ginny's being weird so suggestions are very welcome. Also, I know the tree thing's so unoriginal, but I can't write Neville/Luna fluff to save my life and I had to end that bit at SOME point...


	9. Chapter 9

An hour later, George had been found and was in the kitchen, getting quite the chewing-out from Molly. In a stroke of brilliance, Luna and Hermione had diverted the party guests outdoors, where they were enjoying the first snow of the season. George would have given anything to be one of them.

"You nearly blew this house to smithereens!" Molly screamed, then more cautiously she asked, "How COULD you?"

"It got out-of-hand, that's all," George said defensively, avoiding his mother's glaring expression. "If it'd gone as planned..."

"You PLANNED this?!? This is beyond destructive, George. Everything within twenty feet is covered in soot, and the furniture will probably smell like smoke for weeks. How could you?"

"Mum, we all have our own ways of remembering Fred. You cry a lot. I make up for his absence. There's no harm in any of it. Besides, it's not like anyone got hurt..."

"That Bell girl's purse lit afire - you realize you've got damages to pay for, I hope."

"Having a little fun never killed anyone, Mum."

---

Outside, most of the party guests were having a good laugh picturing the fight that was inevitably going on outside. "I might not have to kill George," Hermione laughed. "Molly's probably gone and done it for me by now."

Suddenly a brainwave hit Ginny hard. "Oh shit," she said, "I just realized Christmas is in two days and I haven't done a bit of shopping yet. You two wanna brave the shops with me tomorrow?"

"Why not?" Luna chirped. She wasn't much for spending money on people, but tagging along with her friends couldn't be too precarious. After all, who ever got hurt doing their Christmas shopping?

---

A/N: That last line is a tempting little teaser for the next chapter, btw.


	10. Chapter 10

It was Christmas Eve, and Luna Lovegood was doing something she never thought she'd do - going to a Muggle shopping mall with a best friend who just realised she hadn't bought anyone presents and a casual friend who was trying to keep things under control and, for the first time in her life, failing. It was such a deliciously unusual concept that Luna couldn't do anything but love it. She didn't have anyone to get presents for, having made Ginny and Hermione's three weeks earlier, so she was going to watch and laugh at the horrible things her friends bought.

"This place is HUGE," Ginny sighed as they arrived at the shopping mall. "How many shops are in here?"

"Sixty-something," Hermione guessed, since that was an average number for a mall. "We're just going to the department store, a few specialty shops, and the food court, though, so we can't get too lost."

"There's no way we're getting lost, not with the map you've probably got inked in your brain," Ginny muttered just loud enough for Luna to hear.

"Just remember," Hermione said as they entered through the department store, "we're normal girls today."

"Normal - I believe that means boring," Ginny laughed. She was completely out of control, Luna and Hermione decided at about that moment.

"You know what I mean by NORMAL, Ginny," Hermione snapped. "If we botch this up, your mum's going to have the canary to end all canaries."

---

Ninety minutes later, the girls were in line to purchase their items. Luna had found a lacy lavender dress that Hermione had talked her into getting, Hermione had assorted junk for lesser persons, and Ginny had decided that her mother would LOVE a proper suitcase. Though Luna had pointed out that lime green was certainly not Molly's color, that comment had no effect on the idea. Ginny also had an array of lesser items, but none of those are worth mentioning.

"I fail to understand why normal people like this sort of place," Luna said as the line inched forward. "Why exactly are we here in the first place?"

"Because it's Christmas Eve," Hermione explained, "and this is the only place I could think of within sixty kilometers of the Burrow that's open. That enough for you?"

"I'll live with that," Luna chirped.

---

Four hours later, the girls had done every last bit of their shopping. The others had coaxed Luna into getting things for a few more people, although most of these were boxes of chocolates. Ginny and Hermione each had more shopping bags than they knew what to do with, which was certain to make wrapping all the presents into a full-blown nightmare.

---

A/N: Since I have no idea what British shopping-malls are like, I went by what us Americans get to shop at. Also (random moment), the canary-to-end-all-canaries line was originally said by my art teacher, in case you were wondering where I got that.


	11. Chapter 11

'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring - except for George. Never mind that it was 2 AM on Christmas Day - he was too busy making certain a few things were, shall we say, _functional_. It wasn't working, which was probably good for everyone else, as these things were meant to be Christmas presents. Everyone got lucky that year - George did not end up giving any presents.

---

Fast-forward about eight hours. The house was, unsurprisingly, in a state of total panic. As is customary in some places, presents are usually opened when things hit a level of chaos unheard of in most circles. This was certainly the case at the Burrow.

It isn't nessecary to see most of the reactions, so let us just say that most items were accepted with enthusiasm - until it was time to open the parcels from Hermione and Ginny, that is. When everyone realized that was what was left, they didn't expect much. They didn't expect what they got, either.

"What the heck IS this?" Luna asked. It figured - the box she opened from Ginny contained a lacy, silky... thing. She hadn't seen it purchased, but after the department store, she'd decided it was better not to know.

"It's a shawl," Ginny explained, "to wear over that dress you got."

"There's something you're not telling me," Luna reasoned. "I know you're planning something totally crazy for which I might need to wear this thing - you know I'd never touch it otherwise."

"Wait and see," Hermione said. "That's all we can say for the moment."

Other parcels from the girls were opened to similar reactions, although no one seemed quite as outraged as Luna had been. Then it was down to two boxes - a smallish one for Fleur from both of the girls combined, and a much larger one, the suitcase for Molly. Both of them expected the worst.

"What is zis ... thing?" Fleur asked, pulling out the oddest-looking item she had seen in her life. It was some sort of clothing, and it looked like what would happen if one ran a ball gown through a paper shredder.

"It's a dress," Ginny tried to explain, but the meaning was lost. The girls had gone into the trendiest of shops and decided that they were buying Fleur the priciest dress there, regardless of style. The olive-green THING Fleur had just unwrapped was the result.

"What in the name of all good things am I supposed to do with this?" Molly had unwrapped the suitcase and was staring at it in a way that never meant well.

"It's a suitcase, Mum," Ginny said. "Something to put your things in when you go on holiday."

Luckily for Ginny, the smell of a burning object caught everyone's attention at that very moment...

---

A/N: A short list of what I'm doing with the rest of this:

Chapter 12 - Christmas dinner (the final line of this chapter is a teaser)

Chapter 13 - skipping over the next week, a New Year's Eve Party

After that, IT IS FINISHED! Yeah, I know it's odd that I'm still posting this in the middle of January, but I'm weird like that.


	12. Chapter 12

"What the hell is going on?" Hermione asked, smelling that something was totally on fire.

"The turkey!" Fleur shrieked, running to the kitchen.

Ginny, Hermione, and Luna followed at a safe distance, stopping close enough to the kitchen that they could see what was going on. Indeed, the turkey was blazing terribly, and Fleur seemed unable to remember a fire-extinguishing spell. Her attempts were fun to watch, though - the first turned a decorative plate into a bouquet of roses, the second sent the contents of the kitchen junk drawer flying throughout the house, the third produced an ear-piercing wail, and the fourth and final attempt turned the turkey into a hat.

At this moment, Ginny's better judgement wore out, and she sauntered into the kitchen. "We're eating a HAT?!?" she said, rubbing in Fleur's inability to cook.

"If you weren't family..." Fleur started, raising her wand.

"It's not like the rest of us wanted you around," Ginny taunted, forgetting that Fleur was more powerful than she looked. "The only reason we even tolerate you is because we like Bill. The fact that he was dumb enough to love you is his problem, not mine."

Fleur muttered something in French, and Hermione and Luna decided to duck behind a tea table. They could still see, although it wasn't any fun to watch. A full-scale fight was going within a minute, and it was clear that neither person was going to stop anytime soon.

"What in the name of all good things..." Molly started, stopping near the tea table behind which Hermione and Luna hid. "What happened?" she asked, seeing the girls.

"Ginny has officially gone mad, THAT'S what's happened," Hermione muttered. "Fleur couldn't remember a fire-extinguishing spell - maybe that's not so drilled-in at the school she went to - and she ultimately turned the turkey into a hat. Ginny has no judgement whatsoever, so she went in there and made some stupid comment. After that, Luna and I decided we'd better hide."

"It's true," Luna added. "We don't even know what they've done to each other in the last minute."

"Too much for my comfort," Molly said, going back to the sitting room.

---

Five minutes later, Ginny and Fleur were still at it, although one of them had had the common sense to move the fight outdoors. Harry and Bill were involved as well now, trying to remove their respective parters from the melee, but neither had any luck. The rest of the family was watching in terror through the front windows, except for George, who was perched on the roof. If his fireworks were still intact, he would've had the good sense to set them off. As it was, he had other plans...

---

A loud _CRASH_ made the girls pause for a moment. Ginny looked up and saw that George was on the roof, trying to wire _something_. A moment later, as a pop-punk version of 'The Twelve Days Of Christmas' filled the air, she realized what was going on. The synchronized light display, which had supposedly been taken down, was instead up and running like never before. "Mum's gonna kill him," she laughed. She certainly would've said more, except that two hands pulled her away from a similarly perplexed Fleur.

"What happened?" Harry asked, looking Ginny straight in the eyes.

"She started it," Ginny snapped. "You'd think that someone as brilliant as she supposedly is would be able to do a fire-extinguishing spell, but she couldn't. After nearly blowing up the kitchen, she turned the damned turkey into a HAT!"

"And what did you do?"

"I was surprised, and I kinda told her that. She was like, 'if you weren't family...', and I was a little mean, okay. Next thing I know, I've been sent flying, and I just had to fight back. Really, you'd think she'd understand sarcasm when she hears it, but NO, she just went at me. I'm actually proud I'm still in one piece, although I have a certain feeling she now hates me like never before."

"But why?"

"Why WHAT? If you mean my thing about her officially hating me now - it's not like she ever DID like me or anything, so it's no great loss."

"That's not what I meant at all. What I want to know is why you've been acting so strangely. I'm not the only one who's noticed..."

"Yeah, by now I think I know that. Hermione's been making comments about me having officially gone crazy whenever she thinks I'm out of earshot - I have better hearing than she thinks I do - and Luna's been agreeing with her. I... I just don't know WHAT'S wrong with me. All I've wanted for the past six months is for things to go back to normal, but that can't happen! Hogwarts is still in smithereens, they're still dealing with rogue Dark people... I really don't know what to think of anything these days. I should be fine - the war's over and everything - but I keep feeling like something's missing."

He did not reply. Instead, he pulled her closer to him, and they kissed.

---

A/N: I'm not sure if turkey is the normal thing for Christmas dinner in Britain, but here in the USA it's either turkey or ham, and trust me when I say that it's way easier to burn a turkey... Oh, yeah, NEXT CHAPTER IS THE LAST ONE!!! I am so proud that I'm finally finishing a multi-chapter fic... Also, in case you read the first version of this during the eight or so hours it was up, I decided to extend it a bit.


	13. Chapter 13

Two days later, Hermione and Luna were trying to take down a garland that wouldn't go down by magic when Ginny ran happily into the room, nearly ruining the carefully set three feet of floor space. "What's with you?" Luna asked, slightly disturbed by Ginny's sudden happiness.

"I finally figured out why I've been out of it lately," Ginny chirped. "Well, really I figured it out on Christmas, but I've finally worked it into an explanation that makes sense enough for me to tell you two."

"Then TELL us already," Hermione snapped, yanking the stupid garland hard enough that it came down, taking a large piece of Ginny's wallpaper down with it.

"I've been having trouble adjusting to the new reality," Ginny explained. "After what we all went through over the past three years, I know I'm not the only one. It's just so weird, not fearing for my life and all."

"That's the most intelligent thing you've said in the past week," Hermione said, and Luna nodded her head in agreement.

THE END

---

A/N: Finally finished! The New Year's Eve party I hinted at is actually going to be it's own oneshot, as it has little to do with this. Thanks to everyone who's reviewed - vlmck02, yellow 14, Flying Chrissy, silverbirch, ariannah-shadow, and Sorla.


End file.
